[aruanan]

In what way is the penalty an income tax? It doesn’t tax income, it taxes people for existing without insurance coverage. It’s a poll tax.

The mechanism of extracting the penalty is to draw money away from one's income. It's a tax, a burden, ON income. No taxable income means no payment.

Yeah, now you're talking like Roberts. People can have taxes levied on them without having any income at all. If someone is jobless and without any revenue stream and doesn't have health insurance then he faces the penalty of Obamacare. If it's a "tax," then it's a tax regardless of his state of income; therefore, it's not an income tax. It's a "tax" based on whether or not he did something else, that is, purchase an insurance plan. If you buy one, you don't pay the "tax." If you don't, you pay the "tax." You could call it a non-sales tax.

[Tublecane]

“You could call it a non-sales tax.”

Call it a poll tax, because that’s what it is. It is a head tax directly laid on individuals without regard to their income. Poll taxes are illegal. Therefore, so is Obamacare. (It’s illegal for other reasons, too; this is just one.)